If you wonder why you can’t get your hands on an iPhone X until well into 2018, you may have its facial recognition 3D sensor to blame, a new report claims.
Citing two executives working for iPhone X suppliers, the report states that the new sensor’s yield rate is failing to reach a satisfactory level. As a result, just “tens of thousands” of iPhone X handsets are currently being produced daily. For a handset that could have preorders of 40-50 million that’s not good!
iPhone X could be X-tremely late
The report claims that the iPhone X has been “plagued by a number of production issues,” which resulted in its release date being rolled back past that of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. Suppliers are trying to increase the level of 3D sensor outputs, but it’s not clear how successful this attempt has been.
Previous reports have also suggested that Samsung has struggled to build OLED displays for the iPhone X, although these issues may not have been resolved.
As per Jeff Pu, an analyst at Taipei-based Yuanta Investment Consulting, the current hope is that the finished handsets will leave China, headed for Cupertino, in the third week of October. The company responsible for assembling the iPhone X is Foxconn, which is constructing the finished handsets at its factory in Zhengzhou.
Foxconn supposedly built 2 million iPhone X handsets in September, and this number should increase to 10 million by the end of October, and 40 million by the end of the year. However, it’s likely to be well into 2018 before supply is finally able to match demand.
Are you planning to preorder an iPhone X handset? Will delays in availability affect your decision about which iPhone to get, or whether to upgrade at all? Leave your comments below.
Source: Nikkei
